Federal Bureau
of Investigation
Headquarters: J.
Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20535
Phone: 202-324-3000
Employees: 35,403
Director: Robert Mueller
Website: http://www.fbi.gov
FBI News
Career
Page
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
is the investigative arm of the US Department of Justice.
The mission of the FBI is to to protect
and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence
threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United
States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services
to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and
partners.
The FBI battles a variety of crime including:
cybercrimes, white collar and organized crimes, illegal drugs,
public corruption and violent crimes.
With headquarters in Washington, D.C., the FBI has 56 field offices located in major cities throughout the U.S., 400+ resident agencies in smaller cities and towns across the nation, and more than 60 international offices called "Legal Attaches" in U.S. embassies worldwide.
As of March 2011, the FBI had a total of 35,403 employees. That includes 13,858 special agents and 21,545 support professionals, such as intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, information technology specialists, and other professionals. Employment has increased by more than 3,000 at the agency over the past year.
FBI Headquarters is currently located in
the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.
The Special Agents and support personnel who work at Headquarters
organize and coordinate FBI activities around the world. Headquarters
personnel determine investigative priorities, oversee major cases,
and manage the organization's resources, technology, and personnel.
Headquarters also has a role in gathering and distributing information.
The fiscal 2010 budget for the FBI was $7.9 billion.
History
On July 26, 1908, Attorney General (AG)
Charles J. Bonaparte ordered a small force of permanent investigators
(organized a month earlier) to report to the Department of Justice's
Chief Examiner, Stanley Finch. AG Bonaparte declared that these
investigators would handle all Department of Justice (DOJ) investigative
matters, except certain bank frauds. At first, little seemed
to come of AG Bonaparte's reorganization.
In 1909, this investigator force was named
the Bureau of Investigation (BOI). At this time, it investigated
antitrust matters, land fraud, copyright violations, peonage
(involuntary slavery), and 20 other matters. Over the next decade,
federal criminal authority and Bureau jurisdiction were extended
by laws like the 1910 "White-Slave Traffic" Act that
put responsibility for interstate prostitution under the Bureau
for a time and the 1919 Dyer Act that did the same for interstate
auto-theft. US entry into World War I in April 1917 led to further
increases in the Bureau's jurisdiction. Congress and President
Wilson assigned the BOI's three hundred employees responsibility
for espionage, sabotage, sedition, and selective service matters.
In June 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt
ordered the formation of a Division of Investigation composed
of the Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Prohibition.
Director J. Edgar Hoover -- first named Director in 1924 -- was
appointed Director of Investigation but also remained BOI Director.
In the fall of 1933, the 18th Amendment was repealed and the
Bureau of Prohibition withered and died. Its enforcement functions
were ended or dispersed so its agents were transferred or fired;
a small number became FBI agents.
In the 1935 Department of Justice appropriation,
Congress officially recognized the Division as the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, the FBI. The name became effective on March
22, 1935, when the President signed the appropriation bill. The
agency been known under this name ever since.
Since its creation, the FBI has had only
ten Directors.
On October 26, 2001, President George Bush
signed into law the US Patriot Act, which granted new provisions
to address the threat of terrorism, and Director Robert Mueller
accordingly accepted on behalf of the Bureau responsibility for
protecting the American people against future terrorist attacks.
On May 29, 2002, the Attorney General issued revised investigative
guidelines to assist the Bureau's counterterrorism efforts.
Updated April 1, 2011
